A team of soldiers have invaded a mosque in Aba, Abia state and arrested the Chief Imam of the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Central Mosque, Alhaji Idris Bashir and some of his members over suspected bomb.<\/p>\n
The soldiers who were said to have stormed the Mosque at about 2am in a convoy of Seven Hilux vehicles also took away the deputy Imam and a youth corps member who teaches at the Islamic school at the area.<\/p>\n
Addressing journalists in Aba, deputy chairman of the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Muslim community, Alhaji Musa Iheakaram said the soldiers cordoned off the Mosque and arrested the Imam and others under the guise of searching for bombs which they claimed was being kept at the Mosque.<\/p>\n
According to him, the soldiers also raided the Onions market at Uratta in Aba North LGA and arrested its chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Bargi and the secretary, Alhaji Sani Jos.<\/p>\n
Around 2am, I was woken up by one of my brothers, Alhaji Bala Dawra that soldiers have taken over the Mosque but before I could get to the place, the soldiers had taken away the Chief Imam, his deputy and a youth corps member.<\/p>\n
After arresting the Chief Imam and others at the Aba Central Mosque, they also went to the onions market at Uratta market. They searched the mosque but didnt didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see the Imam. They took over the phones of our brothers that were in that market around 3am and arrested the chairman of the onions market and his secretary.<\/p>\n
We were told that they went to the yam market where they also ransacked everywhere but were unable to get anything. They however, went away with the chairman of the yam sellers. The Sarki of Ogbor Hill was also picked by soldiers at about the same time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Iheakaram said.<\/p>\n
He added that he has informed the Abia State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Adamu and the Police Area Commander in Aba, ACP Peter Wagbara even as both denied knowledge of the arrests.<\/p>\n
Iheakaram called on the soldiers whose Unit is yet to be known as at the time of filing this report to release the arrested persons as they are law abiding residents of the city.<\/p>\n
When our correspondent visited the Ama Hausa area where the Aba Central Mosque is located along Mosque Street by Hospital road, some members of the Muslim community were seen in clusters discussing the development. Others locked their shops for fear of further raids by soldiers.<\/p>\n
Efforts to get the reaction of the Commander of the Military Unit at Ngwa High School, Aba were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
Contacted on phone, Abia State Police Commissioner, Alhaji Adamu Ibrahim said he was yet to receive any formal complaint from the Muslim community in Aba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A team of soldiers have invaded a mosque in Aba, Abia state and arrested the Chief Imam of the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Central Mosque, Alhaji Idris Bashir and some of his members…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n